Two newly “Perpetually Professed” Sisters! Are you next?

 Two newly “Perpetually Professed” Sisters!

Are you next?

Thank you for your prayers for Sister Bernadette-Marie of Jesus Christ Crucified and Sister Mary Imelda of the Redeemer. After years of discernment, living in the FLM community, and taking temporary (I think that’s the right word for it) vows, both of these Sisters took their vows to the highest level and made them perpetually binding.

They both spent the last month in even more contemplative prayer than normal. They were, by and large, excused from their normal duties/chores to free them up for more intense private prayer as well as their community prayer. The last week or so ramped even that up another notch as they made a private retreat. 

While they were retreating from this world and entering more deeply into the mystical realm where angels and Saints worship God unceasingly, much physical work was being done at the convent. I mentioned briefly last time that the Discalced Carmelites were coming to do all of the work of serving the Pontifical Mass. They built an extension to the extension that had already been built onto the sanctuary so that there was more room for the celebrant, Cardinal Burke, to sit upon his throne. Then they had to move the canopy structure, which had been installed a mere day or two before, but which was now not over the throne in its new place. They did a superb job, even though it meant that at least one of them stayed up all night to complete the construction! 

Cardinal Burke was the celebrant of the Mass and the Bishop of Wichita, Bishop Carl Kemme, was in choir. He was amazed with the beauty and intricacy of the Mass.

The Sisters professed their vows to Mother Maria Regina and then proffered the written document to the Cardinal to acknowledge. Those written statements of their intentions to remain faithful to their vows and their community were then placed under the altar cloth upon which Mass was about to be celebrated. 

The Sisters prostrated themselves before the tabernacle, just outside of the altar rail, and were covered with funeral palls as a symbol of their dying to self and to this world for the sake of the next. As Jesus Christ, their spouse, gave His life for the salvation of all who would accept His grace, so they offered themselves along with Him, joining in His saving act of love.

I was supposed to be in choir, just sitting there and looking pretty. I am good at “sitting there” (fidgets and all) but not so good at the “looking pretty” part, so I swapped that role for the one helping to distribute Holy Communion. Much better!

From my seat I had what seemed to be a perfect view of all that the two Sisters were doing as well as everything that the Cardinal was doing or had done to him. Except that there were three rows of tall priests sitting between me and the ”action.” And even they couldn’t see much because of the swarm of Carmelites surrounding the Cardinal and the Sisters, busily moving, changing, holding, and directing this, that, and the other. 

In reality, I was very thankful that I already knew what was happening, for even xray vision couldn't have pierced the cloud of holiness in front of me! It also kept me focused on praying for the Sisters instead of finding myself in the trap into which I can so easily fall, watching a beautiful religious ceremony with more worldly fascination than otherworldly contemplation.

It was a long, tiring week for everyone, but it was worth it! For the next few days, Compline, and, thus, bedtime was moved up a little bit so that slowly we could catch up on some much needed rest. (By using the Royal “we” I mean “the Sisters” for they are the ones who did even more work than the Carmelites!) Of course, the Sisters are all gung ho to have more ceremonies like that, whether it is for more Perpetual Vows, temporary vows, or whatever else the girls go through to enter the joy of Community Life.

So, ladies, if you are discerning a vocation what are you waiting for? Come and share this life with the FLMs! Their website is listed below.

With prayers for your holiness,

Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka

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For those who wish to ask for prayers, discern a Vocation, or make donations:

[The Sisters now have a website! https://filiae.org/]

This blog is not monetized, since the good Sisters give me food and shelter. But if you wish to support the Filiae Laboris Mariae Sisters under my spiritual care, feel free to send them a note to: St. Joseph Convent, 1250 Hackberry Road, Redfield, KS 66769. They constantly pray, and their benefactors will get great spiritual rewards! That is also the address you can send snail mail to me. I suppose you already know or can guess my gmail address with the F*****P**** in front of it!

Too Much Going On To Post Bird Photos!

 Too Much Going On!

Another week goes by without an article. Sigh.

I told you that I would send photos of the birds coming to the feeders. That should have been a pretty quick and easy article. Copy photo. Paste photo. Repeat. I should have had it done a long time ago. But sometimes things just don’t work out as planned. Not that I am complaining, mind you, just explaining. And I’m not able to do a good job at that, either, for I can’t really think of anything all too important that has been keeping me busy.

Other than the usual Convent routine of praying the 8 canonical hours of the old Breviary, daily Mass, a minimum of 1 1/2 hours of silent meditative prayer before Our Lord in either the Tabernacle or Monstrance, confessions for the Sisters, watching the birds, playing with the goats, writing an occasional letter or two (dozen), and things like that, I really didn’t do much.

Fr. Pillari had a retreat here last weekend. I helped by hearing confessions. It was a silent retreat, so I told the penitents that they had to pantomime their sins. I don’t know how well they did, since they were behind the screen, but.. No, wait, this was a real retreat, not a New Rite crazy thing. 

Before you start castigating me for throwing aspersions on the New Rite way of doing things, I do remember that this week brought a video of a Pentecost Novus Ordo Mass in Argentina wherein the priest was dressed with both Mass vestments and a Minion “helmet” thingy, where costumed female fruits danced around the church, including in the sanctuary, and where bowls of fruit were placed on a table up front so that Father Minion could mix them up and dish them out for the people to eat and enjoy while at Mass, in the church. A bit later in the Mass the Consecrated Hosts were placed in plastic bowls before being given to teens to distribute. The least of my wonders is if those eating the fruit observed the mandatory one-hour fast before receiving Holy Communion. That does assume, obviously, that a consecration actually took place. Which might be doubtful.

Of course, all that nonsense actually made sense once it was explained that he was teaching the people about the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. Whew! I thought he was just another wacko Argentine cleric, but I was glad to find out he was really a good teacher and preacher and theologian and, perhaps, future pope. And, even after international outrage from Catholics who are, well, Catholic, no indication has been given from his bishop that he did anything wrong. But somehow a reverently celebrated TLM will harm the faith of the people and must be stopped.

What’s that? You want photos to back this up? Natch!

That being said, although I was tempted to do the mime thing in the confessional, without the “audience” to hoot, whistle, and clap for me, it wouldn’t have been much of a show, so I thought better of it.

But that’s not why you read this column. You want real life stories, or even fake life stories, of my chaplaincy. So let’s get back on track. I can’t believe you let me wander that far astray. What else happened recently? I got my car back from the mechanic. It has been in the shop for a month or more.  That should have made me write more, since I couldn’t go anywhere! Yet it somehow worked in reverse. But now my Pilot is ready for its next 300,000 miles! I hope.

I drove it back to the convent but didn’t have time to take it for a spin for a couple of days. The Sisters are busily preparing for Cardinal Burke to arrive, plus about 15 Discalced Traditional Carmelites, plus a bunch of other random priests who are friends of two FLM sisters making their Perpetual Vows this Tuesday. It is also the 9th anniversary of the founding of the Filiae and the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Grace. The Sisters wore me out as I watched them work.

After a few days of that, and not wanting to strain myself too much from my lounge chair, I finally took the car out for a test drive. I didn’t need anything from Home Depot, but a 50-minute drive and an hour wandering around this men’s playground was just what I needed to build up my sense of masculinity, which had been waning as the Sisters did so much manual labor while I propped my feet up and ate bonbons. It is a fake masculinity, of course, but it is a more real masculinity than that Mass pictured above is real Catholicity. Darn it! I’m back off topic.

Back to what brought you here in the first place. Bird photos! I have no doubt that this won’t be as much of a draw as the Cute Kitty photos, but the cats are all adopted out so this is what you get. Sparrows rule the feeder, but there are also blue jays, house finches, orioles, goldfinches, goose-breasted gosbeak, and hummingbirds. Maybe more, but without staying around for photos, they left no proof.

And, last but not least, the opposite of a scarecrow, standing on my porch to get the birds used to someone in black being there and not being scary.

That’s it for now. Please pray for Sister Bernadette-Marie of Jesus Christ Crucified and Sister Mary Imelda of the Redeemer as they take their vows.

With prayers for your holiness,

Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka

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For those who wish to ask for prayers, discern a Vocation, or make donations:

[The Sisters now have a website! https://filiae.org/]

This blog is not monetized, since the good Sisters give me food and shelter. But if you wish to support the Filiae Laboris Mariae Sisters under my spiritual care, feel free to send them a note to: St. Joseph Convent, 1250 Hackberry Road, Redfield, KS 66769. They constantly pray, and their benefactors will get great spiritual rewards! That is also the address you can send snail mail to me. I suppose you already know or can guess my gmail address with the F*****P**** in front of it!